Richard Courant

Richard Courant (8 January 1888-27 January 1972) was a German-American mathematician.

Biography
Richard Courant was born in Lublinitz, Silesia, German Empire (now Lubliniec, Poland) to a Jewish family in 1888. He became David Hilbert's assistant at Gottingen and obtained his doctorate there in 1910, and he headed the mathematical institute from 1928 to 1933. He left Germany in 1933, earlier than many Jewish escapees; his military service exempted him from being kicked out of his position due to his Jewish descent, but his affiliation with the Social Democratic Party led to his exile. In 1936, he became a professor at New York University in New York City, and he was best known for his book What is Mathematics?. He died in New Rochelle, New York in 1972.